October 11 & 12, 2017 Wednesday & Thursday
Going south, the first marina on the Illinois River after Tall Timbers Marina in Havana (mm 120.3) is Grafton Marina (mm 0.0), a mere 120.3 miles away. Since an average day for us is 30-40 miles we expected to take three days, with two anchorages on our way to Grafton, we made it in two days.
There is a good anchorage five miles before the La Grange Lock and Dam (mm 80.2 – 10 feet) that we had planned on anchoring at Wednesday, but when we called the lockmaster to check on the transit situation, he said: “come on down and we will get you right through.” Since it can take hours if you get to the lock at the wrong time we continued to the lock. As it turned out, the tow that was in the lock encountered a problem and it was a forty minute wait, still, we were happy to transit our eighth and final lock on the Illinois River. We were the only ones in the lock and were allowed to float instead of being tied to the lock wall.
After leaving the lock, we had a little trouble finding an anchorage that we felt good about. We finally anchored at mm 61.2, just before the Norfolk and Western Railroad Lift Bridge. At that point the river is wide and the water out of the channel was about 6 feet. Not a good anchorage in bad weather but perfect for the evening. Shortly after we anchored, a barge came by and Rick contacted the captain to ask if we were out of his way. The captain’s response was, “No problem little buddy.” The closest city to our anchorage was Valley City, IL a population of 13 at the 2010 census, making Valley City the smallest incorporated town in Illinois.
Since we had gone 61.2 miles and only had another 60 to go, with no locks, we decided to make the trip in two days instead of three. Tonight we are at the Grafton Marina at the junction of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.
Wednesday and Thursday were both great bird watching, days: mostly egrets, herons, and eagles. However, the gray and misty skies really hindered taking pictures, it seems we have not seen the sun in days, no beautiful blue sky for picture taking. You might wonder why the White Pelican “video” is a series of pictures instead of a true video. Our poor camera is more worn out than we are, sometimes we can take videos and at other times the camera says; “Not today” It often takes up to three minutes to shut down, we are expecting any day that she will say; “That’s all for me, I’m done.” We are just keeping our fingers crossed that she will make the entire loop with us.
